Sunday, March 11, 2012

We should only use pest control when absolutely necessary. It's best to have a healthy mix of good and bad bugs in the garden. When you fight off all the bad bugs, the good bugs will leave your garden in search of food (lady bugs being one of them). So only use pest control when the good bugs and birds are losing the battle.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

I'm the type of person that has lots of ideas for projects in the garden and in the house, but I have to be in the mood to work on them, so when the mood strikes I have to go for it. Today's plan was to do some seed starting as well as adding shut off valves to beds 2, 3, and 4.

I went to the hardware store and picked up the valves and other parts that I needed to install them and made my way home. I pulled out all of my tools and started the water line project... well that was the plan.

While I was figuring out how to add the valves I kept thinking how I wanted to redo the square foot grid on the beds. The current grid is just not working for me. I don't like the way they look and I'm always moving them when I don't mean to.

Before I knew it I was at Home Depot picking up 1x1's.

I installed the shut off valve on bed 4...

... and then removed the old grid, leveled out the bed, and put the drip lines back in place.

I cut the 1x1's and laid out the grid...

Now I just need to secure the grid to the bed. That will be tomorrow's project as well as updating beds 2 and 3 with the new grid.

OK I feel better now. The new grid is just what I wanted and looks much nicer.

In the garden today I will be starting more seeds. Cucumbers and peppers are on my list as well as rainbow quinoa. Did you know you can eat quinoa greens? I read they taste a bit like spinach and can be grown in part shade. I'm going to try to grow a small patch for both the greens and seeds which are high in protein and fiber.

I will also be working on my water lines in the beds this weekend. I want to add a shut off valve on each bed so I can control which beds are getting watered and when. Currently all the beds are hooked up to the same sprinkler line and I have no way of turning off each line as needed. I only have beds 2 and 3 planted and bed 4 is getting watered along with the rest and that is a waste. OSH (Orchard Supply Hardware) is having their "We Pay The Sales Tax" weekend so it will be a good day to get the needed parts for the project.

I'll leave you with these two photos of the sunrise this morning... I was up at 5:30am making breakfast for my boys before they headed out to play golf. Small price to pay to get the house to myself for a few hours :-)

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

I spent the whole weekend playing in the garden. I know I should have been cleaning the house or doing my taxes but I just could not keep my butt in the house. Every time I looked out the window I saw things that needed to get done outside and with the temps in the 70's how could you blame me.

My to do list:

Cut back the morning glory

Clean up the old herb area

Finish planting out the seedling

Sweep the patio

Trim potted plants as needed

Water

The morning glory needs to be trimmed back every two years to keep it from turning into a rats nest. The photo below is the view from my living room looking at the MG.

Morning glory
View from living room

This plant can get so crazy that it will grow into the spaces between the ceiling boards and into my living room... no kidding...

It's amazing how this plant will find it's way into the house every year.

There is so much more light in the house now.

The area where I grew my herbs in pots before I moved them to the bed next to the kitchen door needed some serious clean up and rearranging.

Before

During

After
Now I'm ready to plant some flowers in this area.

I planted the rest of the carrots I started in the greenhouse in the micro 20 soil blocks. All of the carrots had at least one to two sets of true leaves. They seem to be holding up just fine after transplanting.

I also planted out the beets and spinach I started in the micro 20 and transplanted into the 2 inch soil blocks. I have say I will not be going back to starting seeds in plastic cells. The soil blocks are so much easier to work with.

Everything is all cleaned up and I'm ready for the 2012 gardening season.